Photography

September 21, 2016

Cabinet cards, introduced in the 1860s, were similar to carte-de-visites (small paper photograph prints mounted on card stock). They served as a popular alternative to cased photographs like daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. Cabinet card photos measured approximately four inches by six inches and were mounted onto card stock. The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library owns hundreds of cabinet cards featuring portraits of Masonic and fraternal members. Portraits were the most common type of photograph featured on cabinet cards, which is why it is always interesting to find a non-portraiture card like these two staff favorites in the collection.

The photograph on the left, purchased by the Museum & Library in 1988, depicts a caricature of a Masonic Shriner wearing a fez and riding a camel. The image is a combination of an illustration and a photograph. The Shriner’s head is a photograph atop an illustrated figure and camel. We found little information about the photography studio “F.S. Fowler” in Herkimer, New York, but were able to identify a Shriner (Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine) group in upstate New York near Herkimer. Mason Frazier W. Hurlbut helped to establish the Ziyara Shriners in Utica, New York, in 1877. The group covered nearly 50,000 square miles of territory from Rochester to Albany and boasted a large membership through the 1970s. For more information about the Shriners visit these past blog posts.

The photograph at right, also purchased by the Museum & Library in 1988, shows a posed scene with props. At the lower right hand corner of the photograph it reads “photographed from life.” In the photograph a man dressed up as Father Time, holds the hair of a young woman kneeling at a broken column. The scene includes many Masonic props and symbols: the hourglass, square and compasses, the broken column itself, a sprig of acacia, and the all-seeing eye. The photograph may also be described as a depiction of "Time and the Virgin." This same depiction is in The True Masonic Chart and Hieroglyphic Monitor by Masonic author and lecturer Jeremy L. Cross (1783-1860). Some sources credit Cross with creating the "Time and the Virgin" symbol.

Edward C. Dana’s (1852-1897) photography studio created the card in Brooklyn, New York, in 1896. Dana, a native of Massachusetts, received training from Boston photographer James W. Turner before opening his own studio in 1875. We have found no evidence that Dana himself was a Mason but have questions about how or why the photograph was commissioned, or if the photograph was part of a collection of “theatrical” portraits produced by the Dana Studio. To see these cabinet cards and others in our collection visit our Flickr page!

Have you seen cabinet cards similar to these? Let us know in the comments section below.

August 02, 2016

Sara Rose is a Curatorial Intern in our collections department and a first year graduate student in the Library and Information Science program (Archives Management Concentration) at Simmons College. Throughout the summer she has assisted us in our ongoing digitization efforts and online collection social media projects. She shares some insight below about some of the objects she's been working with during her internship.

Summer. A time of warm weather, long days, and of course, vacations. Whether it’s a day trip a few towns over or a weeks-long vacation across the country, Americans have had a long love affair with summer tourism. In the late 1800s there was a dramatic rise in recreational tourism throughout the United States. The newly completed trans-American railroad made interstate travel accessible to the masses, many of whom were increasingly located in urban regions after industrialization. As urban Americans flocked to the seashores and wilderness for leisure, tourism became a profitable enterprise.

National Parks, seaside resorts, and other tourist attractions promoted vacation travel within the United States. Photography played a key role in the development of national tourist attractions, making it possible to mass distribute images showing various places of interests and inspiring wanderlust for the American countryside. Below are just a few examples of this kind of tourism promotion from the over 300 sterocards in the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library collection.

This stereocard, titled “Grandeur of the Waters,” showcases the famed waterfalls of Niagara, New York. Visible on the left side of the photograph is a group of tourists taking in the view.

Another stereocard, titled “In Surf, Sand, and Sun,” depicts throngs of beachgoers on the shores of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Atlantic City, one of the earliest resort cities in the United States, has remained a popular destination for summer tourists to this day.

This final stereocard shows a street lined with cottages on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. Signs can be seen offering summer rentals to the crowds of tourists who flocked to the Vineyard for vacation, as well as laborers looking for seasonal work.

June 21, 2016

In early 2011, Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library curatorial staff began an ambitious project to digitize our historic photograph collection by scanning each photo and making the image and its basic descriptive information accessible via our website. Flash forward five years, to today, and we have completed this project with more than 2,500 images accessible! They are searchable by names, places and virtually any other term.

In celebration, here is just one image from our collection – a photograph from 1913 showing members of Boston Commandery at the National Monument to the Forefathers in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Part of the Masonic Knights Templar fraternity, Boston Commandery dates its founding to 1802. The group often enjoyed making “pilgrimages” to visit other Commanderies around New England. While the exact details of this 1913 trip to Plymouth are unknown, Boston Commandery had taken part in this monument’s dedication on August 1, 1899.

The monument’s central figure is a depiction of Faith, with one foot resting on a replica of Plymouth Rock. Four smaller seated figures around the base represent morality, law, education and liberty – all values cherished by the Pilgrims. For other images from Knights Templar excursions, search our online collection or read this previous post.

Now that we have completed digitizing our existing photograph collection, we are moving forward with other projects. We have started digitizing our collection of Masonic and fraternal badges, ribbons and jewels. Over 100 of these objects are already accessible online, with many more to follow. We will also be starting to digitize our collection of prints and engravings in the coming months, including our notable Dr. William L. and Mary B. Guyton Collection of over 600 images of George Washington (1732-1799). Check back often to see what’s new!

April 19, 2016

Can you ever have too many badges, ribbons, or medals? Not according to this particularly proud and active Odd Fellow. We recently acquired this fantastic cabinet card featuring a sepia-toned portrait of an unidentified I.O.O.F. member wearing more than twenty badges, medals, and ribbons. The card was printed between 1883 and 1908 by the Osborn Company in Binghamton, New York.

Cabinet cards, introduced in the 1860s, were similar to carte-de-visites (for more on CDVs read this post). They served as a popular alternative to cased photographs like daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, and tintypes. Cabinet card photos measured approximately four inches by six inches and were mounted onto card stock. The cards usually featured a photographer’s decorative stamp, name, and location. The Osborn Company was a family-run photography business owned by Emerson Osbourne from about 1883 to 1908 in Binghamton.

This particular photo caught our eye because many fraternal portrait cabinet cards feature a member wearing regalia with only one or two medals or ribbons. The ribbons commemorate various Odd Fellows events and field days in New York, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. There is a ribbon that reads “Calumet 62” and another that reads “Canton Scranton No. 4.” There are records of an active Calumet Lodge No. 62 in Binghamton, New York, from the mid-1860s to the late 1940s. There are also local Pennsylvania newspapers from the late 1880s that reference an I.O.O.F. Canton Scranton No. 4 group.

These findings lead us to believe that this proud unidentified Odd Fellow was most likely a member of these two lodges and perhaps others. Can you help us identify this photograph? Do you have information about I.O.O.F. lodges in New York or Pennsylvania? Let us know with a comment below or email Ymelda Rivera Laxton, Assistant Curator, ylaxton[@]srmml.org.

October 13, 2015

One of my favorite things about being a curator is connecting objects to each other. Recently, the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library received a photograph of the officers of Beaver Lodge in Belmont, Massachusetts, in 1932. Two rows of men are arranged in their Masonic best in the lodge room with the Master’s chair and two columns visible behind them. They wear aprons, collars and jewels. The Deacon and Steward each hold their respective rods. Accompanying the photo in the gift to the Museum & Library were these rods – a wonderful opportunity to connect the objects to the photograph to help visitors and researchers to visualize how the lodge room looked in the early 1930s and the scale of the rituals that these men performed.

Beaver Lodge was chartered in Belmont in 1922. The population of the town had doubled between 1910 and 1920 and would do so again between 1920 and 1930. Members of the existing lodge, Belmont Lodge, numbered more than 500 and the officers realized that the time had come to form a second lodge in town. The name “Beaver Lodge” was chosen due to the location of Beaver Brook and the beaver ponds and dams nearby, as well as the inclusion of the beaver on the official seal of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts.

The lodge’s history recounts that “most of the Lodge equipment was donated by various Brethren, and the aprons, jewels, collars and other articles of equipment procured as soon as they could be made.” Presumably, this included the two rods shown here. Both are decorated with silver depictions of the lodge seal and the top of each is engraved “Beaver Lodge.” The Deacon’s rod is also marked “Presented to Thomas Stewart,” suggesting that he served the lodge in this office at some point. Stewart (1885-1968), who was born in Scotland, worked as an electrician and joined Belmont Lodge in 1917. He became a charter member of Beaver Lodge when it formed.

Reference:

Amos L. Taylor, “History of Beaver Lodge,” Proceedings of the Most Worshipful Grand Lodge of Ancient Free and Accepted Masons of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for the Year 1947 (Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Cosmos Press, Inc., 1948), 330-341.

September 29, 2015

The Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library is on HistoryPin! Historypin is a social media platform developed to help organizations, communities, and individuals share and map their photographs, videos, and oral histories. The Museum & Library launched its own channel in late summer and will continue to populate the site with images from our extensive photograph collection. You can find our channel at http://www.historypin.org/channels/view/64613/#!photos/list/. One of the great things about HistoryPin is that we can map our photographs by place and time.

Are you interested in finding photographs of Masonic and fraternal groups in your community? Do you want to explore the international locations of past Masonic events and gatherings? You can do that using the interactive map on our page. Visitors can not only browse the lists of photo collections but can explore a map of their region, city, town, or neighborhood.

Visitors to HistoryPin can also comment on photographs and videos they find on our site and contribute any stories or information they may have about a particular photo. This is yet another way to explore our collection and its connection to your community and history.

If you have any questions regarding items you see on HistoryPin or have any issues viewing our channel please email Ymelda Rivera Laxton, Assistant Curator, at ylaxton@srmml.org.

July 14, 2015

A tintype is a type of photograph that is produced by printing a direct positive of an image onto a thin sheet of metal (tin) coated with a dark enamel or lacquer. This photographic process was first described in a publication by photographer Frederick Scott Archer (1813-1857) in 1851 and is often referred to as the wet collodion process.Tintypes were widely enjoyed from the early 1860s to the late 1890s and were inexpensive and relatively quick and easy to make compared to their predecessor, the daguerreotype. Although tintypes were extremely popular throughout the American Civil War (1861-1865), they were soon surpassed in popularity by albumen carte-de-visites and cabinet cards.

This miniature photo album, referred to as a “gem” album because of the small size of the images, measures just about 3 inches wide by 2 inches long. The photographs themselves are a tiny 3/4 by 1 inch and were created using a unique twelve-lensed camera that could make a dozen “gem” portraits with one exposure. Gem portraits were commonly stored in special albums with provision for a single portrait per page. Slightly larger versions also existed. Some gems were cut to fit lockets, cufflinks, tiepins, rings and even garter clasps.

This album is part of a larger donation given to the museum by Britta Fleming, the niece of Harold Sprague (1887-1980), the Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts in 1952, whose Sprague family lineage is intricately tied to Massachusetts and United States history. You can read more about the Sprague family and the collection here.

This collection of tintypes and ambrotypes is a unique example of wet plate process photography. Each of the photographs includes its' own individual frame within the larger frame, which measures a striking 21 ¾ by 38 ¼ inches. The name and age of each of the men is written on the reverse of each photograph and many of the men’s faces have been tinted pink as was commonly found in photographs of this era. At the center of the collection of images is a photograph of a bible with the Masonic square and compasses.

The museum purchased this object in 2001 and it is believed to have originated from a New Hampshire lodge and to have been made some time in the 1860s. The museum cannot verify the information and is currently researching the legible names and ages to find out where exactly the portraits were made.

June 02, 2015

This wonderful photograph from the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library's collection shows the candidates for the Scottish Rite's 32nd degree in Rochester, NY, in 1893. With only 16 candidates, the 1893 Rochester Consistory class was typical of its time. The total membership of the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction (NMJ) that year was just over 20,000, with nearly 4,000 members in the state of New York. With the addition of these 16 candidates, membership in the Rochester Consistory rose to 695 members. Fifty years later, Rochester Consistory was comprised of 2,241 members. Membership in the entire jurisdiction increased ten-fold between 1893 and 1943, with the entire NMJ membership at just under 220,000 members in 1943. Membership in the Northern Masonic Jurisdiction peaked in 1976, with 513,355 members.

December 19, 2014

In 2007 photographer Alison Malone embarked on a project of taking portraits of present-day Job’s Daughters and their meeting places. Familiar with the group as a former member, Malone had found the experience to be intense as a child, yet increasingly fascinating to consider as an adult. With her photographs, Malone and her subjects—working together—offer an insider’s view of a modern Masonic youth organization. "The Daughters of Job: Photographs by Alison Malone" will be on display at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library from December 13, 2014, through December 12, 2015. We sat down to talk with Malone about her project earlier this month.

Over time, what have you learned from this project?

AM: So many things—this project confirmed my feeling that in the present day when much social interaction is not face to face, girls were drawn to actual physical meetings. They derive so much joy from being more than Facebook friends. They call each other sister. I believe the group will persevere because of the girls’ desire to meet and know each other. They have also told me that in meetings you learn to take ownership of what you say when you are all together.

What has surprised you about this project?

AM: That the girls exist in a duality. They rigorously follow ritual and take pride in their ritual work. But at the same time, they do pranks—they shorted the sheets on my bed—act goofy and are silly. They are able to be both responsible and behave like girls.

What do you hope to achieve by having the Daughters of Job photographs on display at the Museum?

AM: I set out to describe a place and time in the organization. I hope that, for the girls, it is a validating moment. I also hope that other girls will see it and that the project will raise awareness and help people understand what Freemasonry is about, including the sense of community and the moral structure. I really want people, both inside and outside the Masonic family, to see how the girls add intention to the spaces they create for their ritual. I took clean photographs of the spaces, to help show the pride they take in their spaces.

How are the girls you photographed involved in the process of your taking their portrait?

AM: With the girls that choose to be involved in the project, I work with them in a quiet space. Before we start, I explain the project. We discuss that this kind of photograph is not posed and is not a performance. I show them examples of portraits taken of men and talk about the history of portraiture, explaining the idea that, in the past, having a portrait made was a rare occasion. I ask them, how do you want to be remembered? As brave, confident, strong? I love watching them think about this powerful thought. I also tell them to let your eyes tell the story of who you are. I want them to be willing to bring the experience of who they are at that place and age. I love finding the moment when they become more than what is expected of them.

In working on this project Malone shot with Fuji film using medium format cameras with 6" x7” film for the portraits and large format cameras with 4" x 5” film for the architecture. To produce the prints, she created high resolution drum scans of all of the negatives to make large format archival ink jet prints of the final product.

September 09, 2014

By 1900, over 250 fraternal groups existed in the United States numbering six million members. To fully understand and appreciate Freemasonry in America, the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library collects objects and documents associated with all types of fraternal organizations. Many of these groups were inspired by Freemasonry and adopted similar structures and rituals. We recently acquired this carved gavel with the three-link chain symbol of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. The gavel represents fifty years of American history. An inscription on the head of the gavel reads “Presented to Grant Lodge No. 335 by H.W. Swank Lookout Mtn. April 29, 1914.”

In November 1863, Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, Tennessee, was the site of the Civil War’s “battle above the clouds.” Under the leadership of General Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), the Union Army was able to attack the Confederate troops who occupied the mountain and drive them away. The following day the Union forces continued to Missionary Ridge and broke the Confederate lines around Chattanooga. Unfortunately, H.W. Swank’s connection to Lookout Mountain is unknown. Was he one of the soldiers that fought in that battle? Did he have a relative that fought there? Did he just enjoy the natural beauty of the site? The mountain continued to be a tourist destination, as shown in this cabinet card from the Museum’s collection. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Americans began to visit Civil War sites as they healed from the war and remembered those who were lost there.

Originally founded in England in 1745, the American branch of the Odd Fellows was organized in Baltimore in 1819 by Thomas Wildey (1782-1861). The group took several cues from Freemasonry – they share some symbols, as well as the three-degree structure for initiation, although the specific rituals are different. Presumably, Swank was a member of Grant Lodge No. 335, which was located in Redkey, Indiana, a town about halfway between Indianapolis and Fort Wayne. Thirteen members instituted Grant Lodge No. 335 in Redkey in September 1869. According to a 1922 local history, Oddfellowship “prospered in Jay county [where Redkey was located] and…several lodges are reported to be doing well.”

The gavel is currently [September 2014] on view in our lobby as part of a changing display of recent acquisitions. Consider coming by to see it – or leave us a comment below about whether you have been to Lookout Mountain!